Sarah Jenkins
Verified WriterLead Reporter, Startups & Venture Capital
Reports on Series A–C funding, founder operations, and how Pacific Northwest startups scale into global markets.
Biography
Sarah Jenkins covers startups and venture capital across the Pacific Northwest, with a particular focus on B2B SaaS, climate tech, and AI infrastructure. She previously worked as an associate at a Seattle-based seed fund, sourcing more than 40 deals before transitioning into journalism in 2022.
Her style is operator-first: every Vanhub piece she publishes is checked against at least one founder, one investor, and one customer to triangulate claims. Sarah writes a weekly memo on cap-table mechanics that is widely shared inside Cascadia's emerging-manager community.
Sarah holds a B.A. in Economics from the University of Washington and a graduate certificate in Data Journalism from the Craig Newmark School (CUNY). She is fluent in Korean and English.
Latest stories by Sarah Jenkins
144 Canadian YC Alumni Since 2005 — and a Quiet Extraction Machine
YC sent four partners to Toronto in September 2025 and briefly banned Canadian incorporation. The real story is what happens after founders board the plane.
$10M ARR, Zero VC: How Vancouver's Quiet Bootstrappers Beat the Cap Table
One Vancouver startup hit $10M ARR without a single VC dollar — and the federal programs that made it possible are hiding in plain sight.
BC's Pre-Revenue AI Funding Gap: $24M Nationally, Zero Verified Here
No fund named 'Cascadia VC' is confirmed writing $1M+ cheques to Vancouver AI startups — but the structural gap that rumour describes is real, and most founders are miscounting the capital filling it.
$250K in BC Tech Grants Goes Unclaimed — The ITA Is Why
BC tech SMEs can stack up to $250K annually in non-dilutive R&D credits, but fewer than 100 companies have accessed BC Fast Pilot in six years. The bottleneck isn't awareness.
$1.07B in Cleantech VC — and Vancouver's Industrial AI Founders Are Still Waiting
Canadian cleantech VC hit a record CAD $1.07B in 2024, yet the capital is concentrating at later stages. Here's why Vancouver's computer-vision industrial startups are stuck in pilot purgatory.
80% Token-Cost Cut: What Burnaby SaaS Shops Owe Ottawa for the Math
Switching from GPT-4.1 to smaller models can recover 10 gross-margin points overnight — and Canada's SR&ED program now makes the engineering work essentially free money.
BC's $2.4B VC Boom Is Hiding a Series A Famine
Seed funding collapsed 47% in 2024. The founders closing Series A in 60 days aren't moving faster — they survived a brutal filter. Here's what the CVCA data actually shows.
40% of Canada's Top Earners Already Left. Now Silicon Valley Is Pushing Them Back.
Canadian net emigration hit a 50-year high in 2024-25, but U.S. political turbulence is triggering a potential reverse wave. Here's why the retention math still doesn't work.
83% of Canadian VC Capital, Five Funds: The Real Series A Math
BC attracted a record $2.4B in VC in 2024, yet early-stage deal counts fell 31% below average. The '60-day raise' story is a network outcome dressed as a playbook.
BC's $124M Clean Energy Fund Is Open Right Now — Most Founders Don't Know
BC's ICE Fund has deployed $124M in non-dilutive cleantech grants since 2008, with a rolling open intake that responds in two weeks. Here's what founders are missing.
BC's $124M Clean Energy Fund Is Open — Most Founders Don't Know It
The ICE Fund has quietly deployed over $124M since 2008, but BC's 492 cleantech companies largely miss it. Here's how the leverage mechanic actually works.
$147M and 16 Years: MineSense's Capital Trap in Plain Sight
Vancouver's MineSense has raised $147M over 16 years with no disclosed profitability. The math on deep-industrial cleantech is harder than the ESG pitch suggests.